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New Orleans — Twenty years after Joe Montana was traded to the Chiefs, could Alex Smith be the next longtime 49ers quarterback to move on to Kansas City?

On Thursday, ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer said new Kansas City coach Andy Reid, then with the Eagles, expressed interest in acquiring Smith when he was a free agent after the 2011 season. According to Dilfer, Reid “really likes Alex.”

“There was a courtship last year, to a certain degree,” Dilfer said.

Asked for specifics of Philadelphia’s dalliance with Smith, he said, “I don’t know a whole lot. I just know there was a courtship. It was not even an inside source, you know what I mean? It was just kind of the scuttle in the offseason.”

Dilfer and Smith are close friends who were teammates in San Francisco in 2006-07.

Smith, who took his only reported free-agent trip to Miami before re-signing with San Francisco in March, is expected to leave the 49ers after the season. Colin Kaepernick supplanted him as the starter in November, and Smith’s $7.5 million contract for 2013 will become fully guaranteed if he’s still on the roster April 1.

On Thursday, owner Jed York addressed his backup quarterback’s future. In doing so, he echoed Smith, who has denied a report that he will request his release in the offseason.

“You figure out what’s best for guys. What’s best for the team,” York said. “You figure out is there a spot for him on the team from a (salary) cap standpoint. Yeah, absolutely, there’s a spot for him on the team. From a need standpoint? It’s pretty nice to have two quarterbacks that you feel you can win with.

“Is there going to be demand for a quarterback who’s played as well as he has the last couple years? Yeah. Does he want to go start and play? There’s a lot of things that go into it, and we’ll sit down after the Super Bowl and figure out what’s best for everybody and how to move forward.”

For his part, Dilfer believes a move to Kansas City could be the best for Smith. In 2012, the Chiefs went 2-14 while Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn each started eight games. The duo combined to throw eight touchdown passes and 20 interceptions and post a 63.9 passer rating.

The last time Smith, 28, played against a Reid-coached team was in 2011. In a 24-23 win at Philadelphia, Smith rallied the 49ers from a 20-point deficit, and his 154.3 second-half rating was the best by a San Francisco quarterback in 18 years.

“I think Andy wants to change a little bit offensively,” Dilfer said. “Alex is a guy with a huge capacity (to learn). You can give him a lot, and he can handle it. Andy has always been able to get the most out of guys that don’t have extreme talent. And everyone thinks Donovan McNabb was this extremely talented guy. He was as a foot athlete. He was (just) a good thrower, right? And Andy got the most out of him.

“Kevin Kolb, he got the most out of him. … He got the most out of guys with enough arm talent.”

Harbaugh’s lost phone: When Jim Harbaugh was the coach at the University of San Diego, Bill Walsh left him a message to gauge his interest in the opening at Stanford. Harbaugh eventually landed that job, but lost the cherished voice mail.

“I was intending to leave that message on my phone for the rest of my life, but I lost that phone or dropped it in the toilet or something,” Harbaugh said. “I can’t remember which it was, I lost it or dropped it in the can, but I don’t have that message anymore. Truly one of the most memorable things was getting that message.”